Life According to Alice B. Lovely

Karen McCombie's Life According to Alice B. Lovely is a funny, sharp family story for 10 year olds about a girl who has seen off every single nanny her parents have hired.

What happens

Edie opens the book with a list of things she hates. People who argue (especially parents). Nits. Yellow. Melted cheese. And BFPs, which stands for Big Fat Phoneys.

Her mum and dad split up three and a half months ago. Now Edie, who's thirteen, and her six-year-old brother Stan go back and forth between two flats. After school there's always a nanny waiting. Miranda burns the burgers and watches shopping channels. Cheryl chews gum and texts non-stop.

Edie's method is simple. She asks awkward questions with a very straight face and makes up facts until the nanny cracks. Stan is learning fast. (The worm in Cheryl's handbag is all his own work.)

What Edie really wants is to be trusted to look after Stan herself. When she finally gets her chance, she puts the pasta on, gets distracted by the radio and sets off the fire alarm. Oops!

Then, on the library noticeboard, Edie spots a heart-shaped yellow Post-it. It's covered in diamante stickers and multicoloured squiggly writing, and it's from someone called Alice B. Lovely. Mum is desperate enough to be tempted. Edie is certain she's the biggest phoney of the lot.

Edie is brilliant to spend time with. She's sarcastic and grumpy and properly funny. But underneath it you can see how much she's holding together for Stan. There's an emergency chocolate box under her bed for when the rows start. There's a ticking clock in the hall that she calls the clock of doom. You'll be laughing at one line and feeling a little pang the next.

It's an experience plenty of kids will recognise, being treated as if you're much younger than you are while the grown-ups make a mess of things.

The split is there on every page, though. Mum and Dad snipe at each other in the kitchen and in the library, and Stan quietly hopes they'll get back together. If your family is going through a separation, this could be a real comfort or a bit close to home, and you'll know which.

For a reader who loves a narrator with LOTS of opinions and a big soft heart hidden under them, it's a treat.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, they might also like The Lost Diary of Sami Star. Hannah's parents and big sister argue every day, nobody seems to notice her, and a diary she rescues from a park bin gives her someone else to think about.